Manage battery life in a mobile device equipped with a visual input sensor may pose challenges. Continuous image capture may require that the device keep track of lighting, focus, and resolution variables while writing the image data to memory. As a result, the mobile device may experience a large current draw during sensor operation. Further, the large current draw may cause the battery and/or microprocessors inside of the mobile device to become hot, potentially reducing the lifetime of the battery and/or the microprocessor.